


Strict Machine

by scy



Category: Torchwood
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-01-01
Updated: 2010-01-01
Packaged: 2017-10-05 14:21:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,586
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/42645
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/scy/pseuds/scy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Everyone keeps up a front.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Strict Machine

**Author's Note:**

> For the tw_flashfic 'Undercover' prompt.' Title from Goldfrapp

Jack gave Gwen official leave after the farmhouse shoot-out. She claimed she was fine, but Jack told her that if she came in before the end of the week, her pass codes wouldn't work.

Still on edge from performing surgery in the field, Owen had been keeping a closer eye on Gwen than usual and he watched closely as Gwen bit off an insubordinate reply and his gaze followed her as she hurried out.

"The rest of you can head home too," Jack said from the doorway to his office.

Toshiko looked as if she wanted to say something, but Jack shook his head slightly at her.

Owen didn't argue, which only meant he was tired and saving up his objections for another time. That left Ianto standing in the center of the Hub staring up at Jack.

"Ianto, you go on home too," Jack said.

"You might need something, sir."

"Not that you'd be willing to do or interested in, Ianto. You need to have a few day's rest without being called in." Jack stared at Ianto, who'd held his position as he awaited instructions. "Go home, I mean it, getting knocked over the head as many times as Tosh told me you did is going to give you a pounding headache tomorrow. Have it in bed."

"When will you be needing us again, sir?" Ianto couldn't leave the Hub without having a notion of when he'd be back at his desk, not since he'd almost lost it altogether.

"Next week sometime. There'll likely be some crisis awaiting us by then."

"Very well, I shall see you then, sir."

"Good night, Ianto." Jack headed back into his office, doubtless to officially alter any reports that were too close to uncovering the truth. That was usually Tosh's job, but after what had happened, Ianto wondered if Jack maybe wanted to take his mind off it and left him alone.

Ianto didn't habitually disobey Jack unless it was a matter of concealing the woman he loved in the basement. So when he awoke the morning following the team's mission in the countryside, head throbbing and his eyes watering, he groped for the paracetamol bottle on the bedside table and shook out as many tablets as he could safely take in a single dose. Then he laid back down and closed his eyes, sleep dragging him down again.

He didn't get a page or phone calling the next couple days and as he limped around his flat, he was slightly relieved for the break. But as he found he could move without wincing openly, he considered staying home like everyone else, as he'd been ordered, but only briefly.

There had never been much in his flat to distract him, nothing there that would occupy spare time when he could be tending to Lisa. So, Ianto was only able to keep away for as long as it took to clean up his flat twice and then dust it again. After that he was left to stare about and concede that not acquiring an extensive library of books he hadn't read already had been an oversight.

Jack hadn't stated explicitly that he'd handle the follow-up reports and he found them dull. Usually he allowed Ianto to take on some of it when he insisted. There was a chance that Jack wouldn't accept his help, considering his state of mind the night he sent the team home. On the other hand, Ianto's time at Torchwood, specifically in the third branch had made him more capable of interpreting the subtleties of mood and judging what would be the best course of action. Admittedly Ianto hadn't done his best evaluations of Jack while under stress, but if he didn't get out of his empty flat, he'd be even more uneasy.

Coming into the front entrance, he wasn't sure whether Jack's threat to deny base access extended to the whole team, but Ianto's codes were accepted and the system let him in. The secondary lighting illuminated the Hub, which was standard procedure when everyone had gone home.

Jack wasn't at his desk and therefore couldn't immediately toss Ianto out, which allowed him the time to search out something to do. He went to one of the workstations and ran a check for necessary updates to give himself an actual workload. When Jack came upstairs, Ianto was absorbed in updating security measures and considering the implementation of a fingerprint scanner locking mechanism in the SUV.

After he'd dismissed the team, there'd been a fury broiling just under the concern and light teasing that was the norm. None of them had quite known how to react; Tosh, Owen, and Gwen had all been furious with Jack for what he did on their last mission; the bargain he struck with the fairies. Ianto too had seen it as another instance where Jack had made a decision without caring what effect it would have on anyone or accepting the input of his team. Then they had irrefutable proof of how highly Jack valued their lives.

Jack's brutality had been efficient and appropriate from where Ianto lay on the floor. He'd known that Jack would have gone further if anyone had been hurt worse. As it was, the leader of the cannibals had narrowly escaped a quick execution because Gwen had made a request, not because of Jack's mercy and Ianto was beginning to see some of the man's reasoning. When there was a threat to his people, Jack handled the business of eliminating it however he saw fit. Lisa had been considered a danger and Ianto still resented Jack's inability to look for other options, but he could better see where Jack's lines were drawn.

"Are you done resetting the codes?" Jack asked.

"Yes, sir. I just finished."

"The thought of Gwen putting in overtime when she was emotionally overwrought kept you up late and you had to come in?" Jack surmised.

"Not entirely," Ianto said.

"I gave the team time off, that doesn't exclude you, Ianto."

"Respectfully, sir, there are things to be taken care of that require attention."

"You mean that this place doesn't run itself and you get more done when the rest of them aren't underfoot."

"Certain tasks are more easily accomplished at such times," Ianto allowed, not wanting to imply that he didn't find collaboration useful.

"I know," Jack said calmly. "Don't worry, I won't put it in your evaluation that you don't play well with others."

"I don't play with my colleagues," Ianto corrected and Jack smiled.

"That's unfortunate for everyone."

"Isn't it a bit late for innuendo, sir?"

"Never, but if you're tired, head home, there's nothing that can't be reviewed tomorrow."

"I'm not sleepy," Ianto protested. His body was whirring with energy supplied by several refills of his coffee mug and if he went back home he'd have no chance of getting any rest. His headache had subsided, but the bruises all made themselves felt with every incautious movement.

Jack kept looking at him and Ianto tried to rewrite the language of security protocols to account for seductive alien intruders. He raised his head when it had been quiet for a couple minutes and saw Jack in the same spot, still watching.

"Alright," Jack said, like Ianto had been arguing and Jack was giving way momentarily.

"Sir?"

"You need to keep busy," Jack said and gestured for Ianto to keep working. "Come find me when you're done outsmarting the main branch's outdated policies."

Ianto had stopped guessing how Jack knew what he was doing his third week at Torchwood 3 and wasn't caught off guard this time.

"Yes, sir." With permission granted, Ianto resumed scrutinizing the fine print and picking out phrasings that gave them leeway when they were called out for an operational audit.  
He spent a frustrating but productive hour on it and then closed down his terminal and went looking for Jack. If he'd ignored the order, even one so offhandedly delivered, then on their next free day, Ianto knew his codes wouldn't work.

The Hub had been hollowed out beneath Cardiff using tunnels and expanding into them as space requirements increased. Even the most current schematics weren't accurate and Ianto jotted down a note to do a new set.

"Sir, where are you?" Ianto called out, peering into the holding cell area. He didn't expect Jack to be sitting with the Weevils or any of the other creatures they kept locked up, but he'd seen Jack do such things and made sure as he passed. From there he went through the door to the shooting ranger and found Jack inside.

"You wanted to see me, sir?" Ianto said. Sometimes Jack came down here to be alone and put precise holes in Weevil cutouts.

Jack didn't reply but turned away from the weapons he'd been cleaning and approached Ianto. He reached out and Ianto jerked away just as Jack's fingers brushed his cheek.

"What are you doing?"

"You've got a black eye and bruises," Jack observed.

"I was severely beaten," Ianto said tersely.

"I remember, Ianto." Jack sounded upset, not at Ianto, but at the source of the bruises.

"Then why are you surprised?"

"Why didn't you put ice on your jaw while you were scrubbing down your flat?"

"It's a bit tricky to hold an icepack and a sponge at the same time," Ianto said.

"I thought your talents for working on multiple projects in tandem would have been useful."

The point was a good one; in a workday Ianto kept everyone's schedules from conflicting and coordinated appointments and the arrival of take out meals, getting his flat cleaned up shouldn't have been any sort of strain. Him being distracted was a giveaway of how much stress he'd been under and how he was only just managing to cope with it. "Sorry, sir."

"You should look after your health first." Jack said and stepped closer, apparently unfazed by Ianto's reaction to the way Jack closed the distance and grasped Ianto's jaw firmly.

"I am," Ianto protested, he resented being treated as if he didn't know how to keep himself in line with his boss' expectations.

Jack pressed a finger to Ianto's mouth. "Be quiet a minute, I need to have a look at you. How are your ribs?"

"Bruised, nothing was broken."

"I wouldn't have let you come in if there had been."

"You read Owen's report," Ianto realized.

"It came across my desk, I do review those things."

"Nothing is confidential."

"Not when it might compromise the field readiness of my team."

"I'm not deployed very often," Ianto said.

"An undisclosed injury could jeopardize that," Jack said.

"You're considering assigning me duties outside of the base?" It sounded unlikely to Ianto. Obviously his credentials were excellent, Jack wouldn't have accepted him otherwise, but his primary duties had never gone further than serving as a glorified secretary.

"If you have a lot of these nights when you're desperate for activity, I think it would be wise to fill them. Otherwise I'll have to inventory the sub-basement levels for other things you've stashed down there and I don't really care to go slogging around in that muck unless I've been given a reason to."

Having seen Jack navigating those tunnels, Owen slung over his shoulders and a gun aimed squarely and without qualm at Ianto's head, it was easy to appreciate wanting to stay out of the dark. "No, I don't have anyone else hidden inside Torchwood. Lisa and the equipment to keep her alive were all I brought from Canary Wharf." He didn't know why he was telling Jack these things; Jack's sympathies hadn't been stirred when they were battling over Lisa during that long night and now that Ianto had seen more of the man's ferocity, he couldn't be sure if his boss had any mercy at all.

"Understood, sir. I've a list of maintenance to be completed, and cleaning up after Owen means I never lack for work."

"I'm relived to hear that you've been so proactive."

"I'd rather this place run smoothly, sir."

"There's little chance of that," Jack noted, and in light of the team's workload of late, it wasn't an inaccurate assessment.

"It's still best to be prepared."

"Now that you've convinced yourself of how important regulations are, let's change the subject."

"What did you want to talk about, sir?"

"How are you feeling?"

"Fine, sir."

"I didn't ask you to comfort me, Ianto, I'm not like Gwen, I want the truth, even if it isn't kind."

"I feel awful, sir," Ianto confessed.

"I knew that," Jack said.

"Then why did you ask?"

"To be sure that you weren't harboring a masochistic streak that's going to be an issue someday."

"You don't appreciate masochism in your staff, sir?"

"When I ask for it."

"And you don't want us engaging in activities that might lower our performance," Ianto needled.

"Yes." Jack hadn't warned him about this challenging attitude, even considering where Ianto's past insubordination had taken them. It wasn't carelessness, jack wasn't letting Ianto use decorum to avoid this discussion.

He'd never made such a point of getting Ianto's side of events, Ianto collected date, he didn't experience it. But now he'd been bloodied alongside the rest of the team, ad that meant something to Jack.

"Are you sending me home, for now?" Ianto didn't add 'for good,' not getting free of those cannibals called attention to his inexperience with field work, but he'd held out long enough for Jack to find them. He hadn't made it easy for them, and he was proud of that at least.

"I'd hope you say my reasoning, but you seem to be set on not having any time off."

"Sir."

"If you fix everything, you know the Hub will be around for a while," Jack concluded.

"Could be, sir."

"You don't let any of us see that though, do you?" Jack said softly. "It's about keeping up the perfect front, despite everything."

Ianto stayed quiet as Jack spoke, not sure if denying his Jack assumptions would be allowed, and knowing it wasn't going to do any good. He didn't need to give Jack any more insight into his state of mind, his boss already figured out what Ianto thought when he'd assumed he'd been circumspect.

Jack rubbed his thumb over Ianto's cheek where a bruise spread darkly. "Alright, you want to keep busy, that's acceptable, but I want to see that you're better prepared for the next mission going utterly south."

"How's that?"

Jack smiled. "We'll discuss it another time, when you're headed up. Now run along and get some rest tonight."

"I'm not-" ready to clock out, Ianto didn't get to finish his sentence before Jack shook his head.

"You've finished more paperwork than most people can tackle in a week. So it's time to let it go for the evening."

Ianto thought of protesting, but Jack wouldn't leave him alone until he went out the door, and it was simpler to just come in early the next day.

"Yes, sir." Ianto did a smart about-face and walked back upstairs. He paused when Jack called after him.

"What you survive says a lot about you, Ianto."

"Even if it's by a slim margin, sir?" Ianto queried.

"Absolutely." Jack was quiet and Ianto raised his voice over the grumble of the generators.

"I'll see you in the morning."

"Until then," Jack replied, and as Ianto stepped through the doorway, Jack faded back into the darkness.


End file.
